Silver Mining & Smelting Cerro Gordo Ore - Exploring an Abandoned Silver Mine & Refining Rich Ore

[@rlmiller007]

I worked underground in a small gold/silver mine in about 1979. This takes me back. I worked alone at about 400'. I would push the skip car to the the ore and then use a kind of powered "bucket" to pull the ore downhill into the skip. Then I would grab the handle of the skip and push it to gain momentum and then jump on the back (like a grocery cart) and ride it to the hoist. Dump and start over. I loved being underground.

[@kuzadupa185]

You sound like indiana jones!

[@GLOBAL-INTIFADA]

Were you mining for yourself or a company

[@rlmiller007]

@@GLOBAL-INTIFADA A company. Ruby Mining Company.

[@BubblewrapHighway]

Did you meet Breunor? 🙂

[@rlmiller007]

@@BubblewrapHighway The name is not familiar

[@fabz325]

The mail guy delivering your package: “WTF IS IN THIS BOX, ROCKS??!” 😂😂😂 if only he knew.

[@Lordmalik13]

I love when KZbinrs collaborate. You , Brent , HeavyD, Ian,.... It's starting to become a really cool KZbin rabbit hole following Brent then branching off into these other really cool channels.

[@MasterThief117]

Absolutely this. I had no idea who Brent was before this video because frankly, I never watch these types of videos. I'm less than halfway through this video and I'm already loving Brent. I knew about Dan Hurd for a while, before Jason's channel but never really watched him until he showed up on Jason's channel. How did I stumble upon Jason's channel? Well I've always been fascinated by electronics recycling and Jason has literally the most detailed and thorough videos I've *ever* found online about the topic. I ended up watching a few of Jason's other videos and I just have to say, Jason is just not only made for this type of work, he is made for sharing these adventures and teaching us all this incredible stuff. Jason, you are you and we absolutely love it. Keep on keeping on, but PLEASE be safe and avoid going spelunking into these old mines and caves solo. Not sure if you bring air quality meters and O2 sensors and such, but I'd highly recommend you get one and also bring rope and some markers to leave as you descend into new caves and mines. Leaving markers isn't *just* for you, but it's also in the rare situation you get trapped and need to be rescued.

[@mailleweaver]

It's like mining KZbin for good videos. Follow the veins.

[@aaronpreston47]

@@MasterThief117 Dan Hurd was my teacher 12 years ago in high school. Dan has worked with Jason, Jason has worked with Brent. Brent has worked with HeavyD, HeavyD has worked with Cleetus McFarland. Cleetus has worked with Demolition Ranch. So the largest gun KZbinr (Demo) is only 6 degrees of separation from my old high school teacher. And me only 7 degrees of separation from him. It’s a funny world.

[@daesong1378]

I told my friend if I ever bought a ghost town like this I would just turn it to some old timey KZbin town, you got so many crafters and all that stuff on KZbin, black smiths, carpenters, homesteaders, engineers, etc.

[@Jimmy_Jones]

I started off with Matts Off Road Recovery, then Donut, HeavyD, and Ghost Town Living. I wonder if there will be more in the chain. Edit: I just started on Sparks Motors today and didn't realise. Now, looking through the list, it appears they also collaborated with Robbie Layton ( I guess it wasn't only Matt).

[@bobhoward6676]

Buy property, pay property tax, run utilities to bring ore to the surface after digging and hauling, time and materials spent to process & refine the ore only to find spot on silver at $23. You've just spent/invested $1K per oz. for what you've got. Being heavily invested in silver & knowing the amount of energy expended to produce opposed to it's value makes no sense to me. The history and the lessons were great. Thank goodness for Brent keeping it alive through all of his hard work & efforts. I follow and support him wish him much success. Thank goodness for YT to post these videos to earn revenue to help recover some or all your costs. Thanks for taking me along for the ride. Loved it.

[@lynnlaurahaynes168]

A labor of love for sure and you can dig or muck for fun in your spare time!

[@elasticharmony]

Very few silver mines are only silver, the lead in the above video could bring in income along with gold.

[@Vibe4ant]

I wonder why they film and upload everything, couldn’t be an alternative revenue source.

[@ReelX4U]

I have much respect for miners, because of their hard work, and their processing of Silver and Gold Ore and this allows me to stack physical Silver and Gold Bullion. Thank You for your efforts sir, there are people in the stacking community that appreciate your dedication.

[@FidgetyGuy]

What about a lead bullion collection? You could be the first Lead Stacker on KZbin.

[@jbowerman50]

Jason, I have cast hundreds of lead bullets, usually have to remelt the first 5 or 6 , maybe more. It doesn't seem to matter just how much you preheat the mold, it takes a few castings to heat it from the inside out. Then you start getting smooth pours with a nice surface!

[@theknifedude1881]

When I was a kid, my family used to vacation in the Mammoth Lakes, Ca. area. I explored a few of the old abandoned mines, but have developed enough claustrophobia that I probably wouldn’t enjoy the whole trip these guys are on. Carlsbad Caverns is fine but when my shoulders are touching the walls I’m out. I’m not a grad but was a geology major and really do enjoy “rock hounding” and seeing the technology that is used to extract the metals from the ore. Thanks for the video.

[@briansigman4196]

Brent, you need to get some 3 piece wedges to split the rock apart instead of just a hammer and chisel

[@desktopevil]

What was your mold made from?

[@markthompson4885]

@@desktopevil carbon

[@maytagmark2171]

To help with making sure you have the stamps oriented right grind a small cross cut across the stamp where your thumb or index finger would be when holding it. So just by feel you know the stamp is oriented correctly.

[@rebeccaosborne2850]

.

[@sigmarkr]

That is actually really smart

[@shorebuck8]

These collabs really make it fun, because we get to see all angles of the process from different persepectives. Also you collab with very fun and interesting content creators, keep it up!

[@gunnar5144]

Great video! My hats off to the miners as well as the people who invented and perfected the smelting process.

[@ska-hooterr5467]

.

[@jeffbarnes395]

Is the lead dust your breathing harmful ?

[@ska-hooterr5467]

@@jeffbarnes395 lead... harmful? Ha that would be news to me. Lol 'start taking all the pencils and cancel the kids school' some quack says lead is harmful HA HA. 🤠🙊

[@RICDirector]

Sure can be.

[@FreeSpeechXtremist]

@@jeffbarnes395 it won't hurt u long term unless you expose yourself to huge levels it will drop ur IQ impair your memory for a couple of years tho. My friend stripped her lead paint off with heat gun not knowing it was lead she had basically lead induced dementia she couldn't remember anything or even think properly for about 2 years. She was exposed to an extremely high levels though they will be fine if they did it for weeks maybe not.

[@sarahhanna9241]

Love especially when Dan Hurd is in them you guys look like you always have a blast.

[@thedudeabides7777]

Crazy how little silver you actually produced from all that labor. The price of silver is unbelievably cheap. Mindblowing.

[@L14MW4LK3R]

Or massively undervalued as a resource and commodity

[@nunyabisnass1141]

Its because it's treated as a byproduct without much industrial use, despite it being used in so many things from electrical connections to optics and nuclear research. Part of the issue could be that you don't need much silver to perform a great number of tasks.

[@BasicEndjo]

@@nunyabisnass1141 yeah. it's mostly a byproduct since it is not used in coins any longer

[@davidl.howser9707]

Very interesting video. So very informative. The knowledge provided to us priceless. 54 grams of Silver @ .75 cents a gram works out to $40.50. Before mining and smelting costs with the lead bringing just .44 cents per pound today. Those silver miners sure did work hard for their wages.

[@stevetuttle5472]

I have several old silver bars and they are all stamped on the top with the mine’s name or the owner name and the weight in oz. It will be much easier to stamp the bars if they are sitting directly on the steel plate. Wonderful job on sharing your process to separate the metal’s!

[@davidarmstrong7628]

Too bad that silver is manipulated now.

[@markthompson4885]

This was the comment I was looking for. You are right him using the particle board as base was absorbing the hammers blows. He needed hard base under silver to get good strikes.

[@rlmiller007]

I worked in a gold mill in about 1977. It was my job to watch the huge steel containers to make sure the stirring arms kept the mud churning. I also took samples hourly at each station then dried them in old ovens. Crushed with milk bottles. Then sent to assay. Using cyanide and a vacuum process we recovered 99% of the gold and silver.

[@stevethomas1638]

Back in the days when I was a kid we loved galena crystals for making a crystal radio.

[@davidcox2197]

I made a few of those little radios. No batts needed!

[@superhawk20002]

"Is your 10 feet the same as my 10 feet?" True answer shown when Brent has a 50 foot rope for the 10 foot vertical span. Lol

[@rockman531]

Hi Jason, Awesome video! Great timing, too! 2 weeks ago I got 4 pounds of high grade silver ore from an old silver mine in Austin, Nevada. I'll re-watch this video & take some notes. Thanks - you're a great teacher! Stay safe! Jim

[@kevincrosby1760]

Just don't expect to get rich. That 54g of silver is worth about $40.25, assuming .999 purity. Economy of scale comes into play. Unless you are playing with multi-ton lots of ore, it's just a hobby. Overall, several decades of weekends spent panning gold pretty much just worked out to "many free camping trips next to streams".

[@pilsplease7561]

@@kevincrosby1760 And I know a guy who has been mining gold as a hobby for decades and everything he has was paid for with gold and hes made pure profit solo mining. Though he also metal detects and has multiple 50 gallon drums of coins and maybe 10k in just coins that he hasnt processed at a coin machine or something yet.

[@waywardgeologist2520]

@@kevincrosby1760you forgot about the lead. Yes, it’s a hobby. Could one scale up, yes.

[@kevincrosby1760]

@@waywardgeologist2520 Didn't forget, just simplifying. Quite aware that, for many commercial companies, silver is just a useful byproduct of their lead mines. Intent of post was more to point out that finding a bit of gold or silver doesn't mean that one should send that nasty email to the CEO of their employer...yet.

[@lincolnstovall9471]

What is the processes for separating the lead from silver. I do use the lead also. I’m in to muzzle loading and making round balls, and shot molds for a Fowler shotguns. All so black powder. It’s just a things I’ve done with my grandfather. He’s gone but he was a miner also.

[@rickgraham9737]

It's amazing how much history is getting revived in this world. Watching you has been very educational for my smelting. Great video! Thanks for all you do.

[@chrismaverick9828]

Looks like a grand adventure for this day and age. For those working the mines it was everyday punctuated by moments of fear, but now it is far from everyday. Hats off to you. Looks like it was fun!

[@sloganq]

Have you guys thought about 3D mapping the mine? It would be really cool and useful. It could be done manually or automated with drones. There's soo many things you could do with the scan. It could be used for advanced prospecting, safety improvements, and virtual exploration; imagine virtual tours or mining. It would be much faster and easier to find old mining treasures, like the Levi's, or rich untouched deposits, from the safety of your chair with a computer and VR headset.

[@RICDirector]

Corridor Crew is on it!

[@The5As7]

I kept screaming, "Drill from the bottom, drill from the bottom!" of that big rock 🤣

[@chrisp7641]

You should invest in an XRF Analyzer. It can tell you the different ratios in your ore cones, giving you a better idea of the amounts of things needed to refine the ores.

[@misterpolytech]

My hat's off to Jason & Brent, & the old school hand drilling...W/ a claw hammer? 🤪😂🤣

[@emmystarlight2788]

Aw, really wanted that huge piece to come off, haha! Something I thought about: Perhaps using mouth protection for an other time so as not to breathe that lead and stuff into your bodies? :) Heavy metals in body can obj. be removed but usually takes some concious work like Anthony Williams Heavy metal removal stuff etc. :) Wishing you all a gorgeous day!

[@America_Yea]

You should run those silver bars through a jewelers roller mill first to flatten both sides before punching since you used an open face casting method. Honestly the graphite molds you were using didn't have big enough sprue holes for hard high temperature metal. Look for a graphite ingot mold for iron or silver use if you want a good sizing for that. You are supposed to lift the heating torch off the silver just before pouring and the exit sprue should have at least a bit of metal in it for a really good pour. As for the borax normally when casting silver we do it from shot with no flux you can remove the borax by melting your silver and waiting for it to surface and grinding it off if needed(we've had silver in our shop a bit too contaminated by flux and this is a pretty common problem that's our usual solution though a peening hammer works pretty well too).

[@garyhuffman133]

A cheap lead flux is sawdust form Pine. The resin fluxes the impurities out of lead. This is what a major bullet casting company used.

[@roberttuss5349]

You guys are brutal with that little hammer. Also, a shorter chisel available might help.

[@bryantmoore7998]

I love the how you show and teach how mining was done back in the day.

[@jasonbailey1951]

I really like the collaborative effort between you and Brent. I watch and am subscribed to both your channels, along with a few others tied into the whole circle, on your side and Brent's. Just like to see how things come together between people and how they each have their own traits and qualities. It all comes together in a harmonious cacophony of great videos and what's essentially documentaries. Thank you

[@mariedriskell8752]

So do I, watch a few of them. I enjoy watching stuff I've never seen before.

[@FunDumb]

He also does a colab with Dan Hurd Prospecting that I'm equally impressed with. Keep em coming!

[@AUMINER1]

I used to watch cerro gordo, until brent starting attacking miners and mining...

[@America_Yea]

I'm very glad to hear ya using proper protective mask for the heavy offgass processes. Lead and zinc inhalation poisoning are not fun

[@lawrencerenew8668]

You guys make some very interesting videos together. I love to watch both of you guys material Individually, but when you do a combo it’s very cool ❤️🇺🇸

[@AUMINER1]

I used to watch cerro gordo, until brent starting attacking miners and mining...

[@semoneg2826]

​@@AUMINER1 Ok...how..I dont see Brent in that way..

[@AUMINER1]

@@semoneg2826 then you haven't watched many of his videos where he attacks miners and recruits all of his foreign supporters to fill petitions and draft complaints and letters to BLM to stop all mining in the USA. Do you homework.

[@AUMINER1]

@@semoneg2826 then you haven't watched many of his videos where he encourages and recruits all of his foreign supporters to fill petitions and draft complaints and letters to BLM to stop all mining in the USA. Do your homework.

[@Harbingerx81]

When we saw thier tools early in the video, I immediatly thought 'That's a REALLY tiny hammer for such a big chisel.' I couldn't help but laugh as he said 'I need to reasses by strategy'.

[@Srfingfreak]

I love how you combine these mining videos with the smelting/refining videos. What a great narrative! I love it. Haha, maybe next time bring a single jack instead of a carpenter's hammer

[@iamtoo1370]

Love the show, you know what would be really cool to do with the lead-silver ore? Cast mining figurines in various activities in traditional garb. I would think tig done right that they would be collectible and would honor the men who's hard work built the caves and structures. The stuff your subscribers have enjoyed all these months. Thank you for allowing me to come along on this journey of yours! Cheers! C Rose

[@evonnewhalen9794]

I absolutely 💯 percent loved this video. Thank you for sharing your adventures and videos

[@jgm9927]

I was out looking for quartz crystals this winter and ended up chiseling through a quartz vein. It was full of galena! Cool looking stuff.

[@dynomania]

Cool Jason. The trials and tribulations of a single handed videographer. The lead ingots came out really well 👍

[@scottbranch5603]

Brent is so child like happy when entering the mine. Exciting .

[@mazuj2]

Wow! That mine is incredible. The separation process was very interesting to watch. Thanks!

[@txcrude]

Great video to learn about the process. very labor intensive. Imagine this on an industrial scale.

[@pixelpatter01]

It's fun watching your work. I thought you would do a cupel test on some of the lead after the zinc separation purification to see how much silver remained behind. I know from casting lead that any trace of zinc will contaminate lead and it doesn't magically separate out. In fact it's well known for making a 'skin' when casting and will ruin whole batches of lead if it gets in.. I suspect you still have zinc in the lead and perhaps silver.

[@Dancing_Alone_wRentals]

tHank you both, this was very interesting. It shows me that the cost of energy is critical in all things we humans endeavor to do.

[@bena2293]

Nice job Jason, maybe you might have your Logo built into the Mold so once poured, the Bars have your Logo, then just add what ever numbers needed , The Silver Poured so Different then the Lead and I was amazed at how much heat the silver needed to stay liquid. Thanks for Sharing that Great Video, Merry Christmas to you and yours . Ben

[@Tocsin-Bang]

I live about 3 miles from an old lead mine. Its now all capped off as its a public park now. Some of the old buildings remain,. The smelting building had some lumps of ore in it and some slag. My house was wired by a chap who had been the mine electrician.

[@silvergold296]

Make some Cerro Gordo fishing sinkers / weights!

[@BasedBidoof]

Can't wait to see you out there again!

[@Spudscave]

Jason that was enthralling to watch from the first minute to the end you are doing a fantastic job on the Cerro Gordo ore that mine sure has a lot of silver left it will make Brent a rich man but will take time and a lot of work but with the modern technology it’s very doable can’t wait for your next adventure all the best from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@kevincrosby1760]

The silver shown from this run is worth just about enough for a nice steak dinner and a mixed drink... Any money Brent makes will be from tourists, not the mine.

[@helives2630]

@@kevincrosby1760 I do believe Daniel is speaking of the ore yet to be mined, there is an enormous amount left to be mined. If there is 50 grams per 50 lbs, that means there are approximately 65 troy ounces per ton of material. Not to mention the value of the lead and etc. that's a fortune in silver. If they hauled out 50lbs in a short amount of time, it would take little time to haul out a ton. This could be done at leisure or at least on the side while the rest of the business is flowing. 3 tons per week is 195 toz. That's approximately $4500 plus, if the galena yields 75% lead, there's approx 4500lbs which is around a $1 per lb. So potentially $9000. per week at a relatively slow pace. 2, maybe 3 miners could do a lot of work. It's hard work but, worth it if a man has a mind to make it work. Besides, he could market his silver and sell it at a premium for souvenir coins and bars. Potentially doubling his money.

[@seanfoltz7645]

On the graphite mold... Make sure to heat up the C-clamp as a cool piece of metal against a hot graphite mold can break it same as pouring a cold drink into a glass straight from the dishwasher. You were correct in getting the mold hot and keeping a torch on the hole while pouring as the higher the metal's melting point, the more prone it is to seize and choke the neck of the mold. You might also wish to use a Dremel to widen the throat by a millimeter or two - use a small crafting one, not a shop-grade one. I actually found that the easiest way to get the mold hot is after heating it with a torch, do a few pours of lead or zinc - then you can more easily pour stuff like copper, brass or in your case, silver. Be VERY careful not to overpour as if the metal clears the funnel and goes over the edge and hardens, it will lock the mold shut - carefully Dremel free the overhang - using pliers to try to force it will just break the mold. Keep a chunk of soft wood to tap the mold against to free the metal - do not tap the metal inside it with pliers and for the love of God, don't start tapping on the mold itself with metal tools - do not tap the back of the mold to free metal as that can also break it. If you're working outside and it's cold, either put the molds in the furnace to slowly cool down or bring them inside - rapid cooling can damage them. Water is their enemy, especially when they're hot. Since you enjoyed the ingot molds, might I recommend scoring some of the coin molds - they've got a Pirates of the Carribean coin, Henry Avery coin and double-sided Athenian owl coin ones out there, usually around $40-50 for the single side and $100 for the double sided, but the results look nice. My only pour using silver was the Henry Avery - that filled perfectly with three ounces and looks awesome - you could likely unload those on eBay for $100 each. Regardless, I do recommend getting some fun molds since you clearly enjoyed using the bar molds - good luck and have fun!

[@unitedstatesdale]

Respect for miners. I would be terrified 20 feet into a mine

[@neveraballfe8253]

That little bar mold is sweet for assays. You could pour the lead sample in the bar mold. Then stamp simple matching serial numbers on the bar and the spru before you trim it off. Then you could easily cupel the spru instead of the whole lead if you wanted to same resources

[@sreetips]

This is the best and most interesting video I’ve seen by your channel Jason. I watched the whole thing - Bravo!

[@mbmmllc]

Thanks Sreetips! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I have been avidly watching your refining videos on inquarting gold with Ag and Cu and I am going to give that a try in the next few weeks on some of my hardrock gold/silver I recovered from my mine in Eastern Oregon. Thanks for all your videos and info! Maybe we can work together on a project in the future? I have been getting a ton of comments from my viewers on doing a collab with you :)

[@sreetips]

Myself as well. That mine adventure was fascinating. It felt like I was down there with you. We’ll keep in touch.

[@ericaw4241]

Really enjoyed the two parts of the video. So interesting! So much fun! Thank you. :-)

[@todamont]

Cerro Gordo FOREVER! Brent needs some feather and wedges.

[@stevenbryant3055]

I’m pretty sure The bit you guys were using with the hammer is designed to be rotated somewhere between 45 degrees and 90 degrees between between hammer hits so it doesn’t get stuck in the rock, it would’ve broken that chunk off a bit easier

[@HalsPals]

This was well worth watching a second time. Great subject matter and video. Thanks.

[@markroper9269]

Love the video! Would love to see more of the chemistry behind the smelting. You should be proud of your work.....it looks perfect!!!

[@jph8266]

One of my favorite video series ever! Keep up the collaborations

[@hamiltongemstones8479]

I hope Brent starts selling silver bars, I would love to buy some to make a cool limited line of jewelry with cero gordo silver!

[@davidcox2197]

Great idea, top that silver jewelry with some Nevada Turquoise??

[@dwj6503]

Nearly 2 ounces of silver out of 50 pounds of ore. That's not to bad. I enjoyed watching your smelting operation!

[@zaddog6306]

What a great video. I have absolutely no critique to give. Absolutely amazing

[@mickeyfilmer5551]

Hi, greetings from Wales UK. just checked and Silver is $23.23 per oz at the moment 17:05 hrs UTC on 17thDec 22 so you might want to think about opening up that mine commercially as it's a winner with that yield!! Brilliant videos you produce - many thanks.

[@Debbiebabe69]

you dont want to be looking at the price of silver, you want to be looking at the price of ore. If they want to produce silver commercially, you would need a proper smelter and refinery, costing hundreds of millions of pounds, as well as a large workforce which again costs millions per year to acquire. The quantities they refines here are barely prospecting samples - the cost of the propane and MAPP gas alone, let alone all the chemicals used, is more than the value of the metal produced.

[@Abloutions]

loving your videos more and more... diverse... honest and a great adventure. Thank you

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

That was a magnificent pour, liquid sun shine. Not sure how one would profitably extract silver from such a large amount of lead. Still, very beautiful.

[@UncleBildo]

Interesting as ever, Jason. Always fun to learn new stuff as you do too. Lotta effort for a little bit of silver, but still pretty cool.

[@marcokernac9237]

It is a great video and entertaining. I hope people understand that the final product was worth $60. I appreciate your entertaining value.

[@michaelhart7569]

Great stuff. I'm a Chemist by training, though metallurgy is not my area. I was intrigued to learn that liquid lead and liquid zinc form a phase separation. I had always assumed that liquid metals would almost always be miscible. I guess if I'm still learning, I'm not a complete idiot.

[@billmiller4972]

So cool that you really find silver in large amounts. Has this awesome flair of "Lost Silver Mine" western of my youth! Feeling young(er) again!!!

[@robertlipiec1975]

Its amazing how much lead you managed to get! Thank you for showing the whole process from mine to finished product. Merry Christmas

[@calebfast8088]

OVER AN HOUR OF VIDEO! YES!!! Love the channel, been following for ages. Love all the collabs and glad you're getting tons of new business too! :)

[@gsx72clone]

As someone who self learned how to do bismuth pewter casting, it was really fun to watch you go through the same learning processes.

[@stevea5282]

I think it would be really cool to have a custom mold with Cerro Gordo Logo or maybe limited tokens make from the ore there.

[@Scott-iu9fc]

yo, that second silver ingot pour was sooooo clean :') well done sir. thanks for the video

[@-r-495]

Great video. Nice to see you wearing adequate respiratory protection. We don‘t want you getting lead poisoning.

[@quintonkoepnick]

I want the tm marked one lol! Could be more valuable as a misprint in the future.

[@GravityPancake]

Excellent video! If I could offer one correction, Cerro Gordo is no longer a ghost town. It has been re-established and resurrected by the loving soul of Brent - with the help of some burly angels, and all of our ongoing curiosity.. also the strange allure of vintage Levis 😂 ❤

[@semoneg2826]

True

[@haroldbeatty2774]

Nice show, I enjoyed watching from start to the finished lead bars and 3 little ignots of silver.

[@herrhaber9076]

Hi, very interesting video as always :) I have a question that has been in the back of my head a couple of times when I watched your videos. Why not go the chemical way sometimes ? In this case, your zinc and silver crust. With all your means you could easily have crushed all that to dust and dissolved the zinc in hydrochloric acid ? Of course, I love it when you do things "old school" but I sometimes wondered if you do it on purpose. Other than that, man... if I ever need a rock crusher I wont care you are on the other side of the Atlantic. These videos are excellent commercials for your business as far as I'm concerned.

[@khadijasarkaly5588]

Greatest rockd

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Yeah.. I don’t understand it either. All these mining channels do it for some reason. It seems to me it’s just wasting yield for no reason.

[@DeadBaron]

I hope they continue pulling lead and silver out of the mines, I would love some of those lead ingots for bullet casting!

[@HDDynalowrider]

I absolutely love learning about refining. Great jobs Brent and MBMM

[@RealMakoi]

How very interesting! History, the chance of newfound riches, and general antique treasure hunting! I could spend weeks there just exploring!

[@goodtimesandgold239]

Great video! Ive been wondering about the silver mining process recently and this video explains everything really well. Question I have, can you placer mine for silver or is it usually not found in a high enough concentration to make it worth your time? Thanks!

[@skeeterbug9875]

I am always impressed with Jason's videos- they give you all the details and methods used. Bravo Jason you are one busy gentleman and we appreciate you showing us what it takes to turn that ore into the actual metals. You have many talents.

[@BennySaunders-xy2uq]

love it, keep up the good work Jason!

[@blainenvalori3308]

all with a framing hammer good job boys

[@jasonhowarth6789]

You guys should have had a 3# hand sledge. 👍

[@steve80582]

FAIR PLAY BRENT, YOU REALLY ARE THE MAN

[@4seasonspix]

Fascinating! I'm amazed, how the former miners dug their way through these hard rocks with much simpler tools than are available today and managed to create this rather sophisticated, sturdy labyrinth. What concerns me though is that you guys aren't wearing any goggles (at first), gloves, and respirator masks to protect yourself from the lead, airborne rock chips, and splinters.

[@sideshow45]

And bacteria that hasn't been touched he'd or breathed by humans in 200 years

[@dipf7705]

​@@sideshow45 beats ohio

[@sideshow45]

@@dipf7705 not hard to.

[@bradstrong-cc7hk]

I very much appreciate your hard work to bring us your videos that explains so much of the process. GOD BLESS FOR ALL YOU ARE DOING!!!

[@TheCritterWindow]

Love the videos. Did you test the lead for lost silver?

[@mariedriskell8752]

You and Brent sure keep me on my toes this us for sure!!!!

[@ernietauber5950]

thanks for taking us on the ride .

[@FancyPants43]

Nice! With those graphite molds, the CTE is exceptional while being a great heat conductor. 🔥💯🔥💯🔥

[@TheMilwaukieDan]

I believe the issue is the really small entrance to the mold. Widen the pour mouth and more silver enters the mold more quickly before it solidifies. Check out poured silver ingots. They are formed in an open mold

[@consolecable]

Every time I see led bars it reminds me of my boss when I worked at a range. He kept all sorts of lead from window weights to sinkers to use to cast miniballs for his muzzle loaders. Had a whole stack of them in the arms room.

[@svenhoff2653]

It would be nice to see some of the high quality stuff from the old main shafts (if there is still some left and reachable). Another thing i want to mention regards Flashlights. Brent should look into LEP flashlights. They would be able to light up even small shafts 1000-2000 yards deep. They are becoming way cheaper then they were a few years back.

[@mikesherman8590]

Love your work I finished my electric oven and have 59 samples weighting GREAT FUN

[@matthewlewis-zw3tf]

This channel is awesome. Jason is the real deal. I'm learning so much from him. Mining ⛏️ is super exciting.

[@whotknots]

Back in the 1970's a former colleague of mine who is now deceased used to enjoy exploring a disused silver/lead/zinc mine on the outskirts of the capital city for the Australian State in which I live. Despite the mine being disused and all known access points securely grated and locked, my associate had found a way of gaining discreet access and used to make frequent forays into the complex. On one occasion he showed me a specimen of Galena so rich it had formed an attractive clump of sizeable cubes of virtually pure metals all adhering to each other. He told me he obtained it from a vein he found which ran through the floor of a drive and the ceiling of one below it by using a small charge of dynamite to penetrate the native rock. I used to have a piece he gave me as a keepsake and regret having misplaced it long ago, because it was quite unusual and pleasing to the eye.

[@joevano]

Thanks for the time stamp. I had to “nope” out of the mine…